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AidEx 2018 Brussels

The Center for Global Development is a partner in the 2018 AidEx conference in Brussels.

Now in its 8th year, AidEx is established as the leading platform for the international aid and development community to come together and improve the efficiency of aid. AidEx is a two day event, which encompasses a conference, exhibition, meeting areas, awards and workshops. Its fundamental aim is to engage the sector at every level and provide a forum for aid & development professionals to meet, source, supply and learn. AidEx was created to help the international aid and development community engage the private sector in a neutral setting, drive innovation and support the ever-growing need for emergency aid and development programmes.

AidEx is a unique, world-renowned event that works hard to genuinely improve the situation on the ground. Our aim is to bring the international aid community to Brussels. From major NGOs and global policy makers through to innovative suppliers of specialist products, AidEx facilitates relationships that would be otherwise unachievable. The two-day programme of events has been specially designed with networking in mind. The drinks reception, exhibition tours and other organised activities encourage our audience to build long-lasting relationships that will enrich their future in the sector.

Each year the AidEx Steering Committee discuss a topic that the event should focus on to make sure it remains current and delivers what our visitors and suppliers need. Our past conference themes have included Localisation, Sustainable Development, Innovation and Collaboration. The 2017 theme was 'Aid and Development Effectiveness: Results through transparency and accountability.' The 2018 theme is: Revolution in the digital age: safeguarding a future for all. How can technology contribute to a positive social impact?

Upcoming Events

Over 1 billion women lack access to financial services due to economic and social barriers, time and mobility constraints, and discrimination Financial services delivered digitally can address these barriers. Closing the global gender gap in access to finance provides an opportunity for the private sector to reach an untapped and profitable market, and provides governments with an opportunity to better reach their constituents. This event looks at the recent evidence on which emerging technologies empower women economically, as well as the importance of cross-sectoral partnership and women’s entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Center for Global Development, TechnoServe, and the World Bank are pleased to co-host this event in Dar es Salaam. We are committed to finding what works to promote women’s financial inclusion and are conducting innovative research on the potential of digital technologies. This event will launch new research on this topic and bring together leaders in the government and the private sector with experts in finance, development, and technology to have critical conversations on closing the financial gender gap. We hope you can join us.

With the goal of driving down drug costs, governments across the globe have instituted various forms of pharmaceutical price control policies. Understanding the impacts of such policies is particularly important in low- and middle-income countries, where lack of insurance coverage means that prices can serve as a barrier to access for patients and lack of effective quality control may allow for low-quality medicines in the market. In her paper, Emma Boswell Dean examines the theoretical effects of price controls in such markets and then measures the empirical effects of one implementation of pharmaceutical price controls, in which the Indian government placed price ceilings on a set of essential medicines.

This unique conference is designed to convene both the new industrial policy thinkers, who have studied the history of government intervention, and blended finance practitioners, who are involved in setting up the institutions and procedures that will use official development finance to subsidise private enterprise in developing countries. These two communities too often work in isolation and have much to learn from each other.

The conference will combine scholar presentations with high-level policy discussions. Please see the preliminary programme for a list of sessions and speakers, in addition to more details about the conference.

Please join us for this “first of its kind” conference and feel free to share this invitation with your network and encourage your colleagues to attend. We want to reach as many people who work in private sector development as possible.

In May 2017 the G20 Ministers of Finance appointed the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) on global financial governance, led by the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam, to review the governance of the international financial institutions, looking at their coherence and effectiveness in supporting the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, managing capital flows, assessing risks to financial resilience and addressing non-financial threats to growth and stability.